After 7 Months, British Hacking Case Heads to the Jury

LONDON — With one of Britain’s most riveting trials — a seven-month courtroom marathon that exposed the inner workings of the tabloid news media and the personal lives of two friends of the prime minister — nearing its conclusion, the judge gave this reminder to the jury: “No one is so powerful they can ignore the law.”

Among those on trial are Rebekah Brooks, who ran Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire until 2011, and one of her former deputy editors, Andy Coulson, who went on to become the chief spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain. While the case centers on allegations of hacking into the mobile phones of people in the news, it has also become a guided tour through the precincts of wealth and power in London.

Justice John Saunders has been offering jurors detailed instructions on how they should consider each count against the defendants since he began the process of summarizing the case last week. On Tuesday, he focused on allegations that evidence was hidden. The 11 jurors (one has had to abandon her duty for personal reasons) are expected to retire to consider their verdict on Wednesday.

Since October, Ms. Brooks and Mr. Coulson, former lovers and former editors of Mr. Murdoch’s weekly News of the World, have been denounced by prosecutors, defended by lawyers and dissected by the news media. They became the subject of the kind of salacious headlines they used to splash across their pages.

They face charges linked to the illegal interception of the voice mail messages of celebrities, royalty and, most controversially, a kidnapped teenager, who was later found dead. They are also accused of condoning payments to public officials for information and, in the case of Ms. Brooks, conspiring to conceal evidence from the police with the help of her husband, secretary and security chief. Seven defendants are on trial, all of whom deny all charges.

The trial has also become a test of whether Britain’s infamously aggressive tabloid culture — the six-figure prices paid for scoops, the scavenging in celebrity trash cans, the relentless invasion of privacy — can be tamed to prevent similar transgressions in the future. It has exposed the cozy ties among the news media, politicians and the police, and in particular the influence of Mr. Murdoch’s newspapers, which have dominated the industry in Britain for many years.

When he began his instructions to the jury last Wednesday, Justice Saunders warned the jurors not to be “dazzled” by the defendants.

“Some of those on trial enjoyed a lifestyle you can only dream of, not just in financial terms but influence they brought to bear,” Justice Saunders said. “They were friends of politicians; they are friends of the stars.”

“You do not envy them their success or be dazzled by it,” he said. “Respect their success, but everyone is subject to the law of the land.”

The jurors have up to a month to reach a decision, one that is expected to make its impact felt not just in newsrooms across the country but also on Downing Street. Mr. Cameron’s aides worry that the conviction of a formerly trusted adviser could revive questions about the prime minister’s judgment ahead of next year’s general election.

Many in the British establishment have been ensnared or embarrassed by the investigation, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who, according to evidence presented at the trial, offered to act as an “unofficial adviser” to Ms. Brooks and Mr. Murdoch. At least 1,000 people from politics, sports and the media, including Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, are believed to have had their phones hacked.

Indeed, the case had all the ingredients of a juicy tabloid story: tales of Mr. Cameron’s inviting Ms. Brooks to his birthday party; computers hidden in trash bags (along with pornography belonging to Ms. Brooks’s husband); and a steamy love letter read in court documenting the on-and-off intimacy between Ms. Brooks and Mr. Coulson. Prosecutors asserted that because of their relationship, if one of them knew about phone hacking, both were likely to have known.

The case centers on the practice of illegally intercepting voice mail messages remotely, which took place from 2000 to 2006 and took advantage of the fact that many people never changed the default access codes provided by cellphone operators.

In 2007, a private investigator employed by The News of the World, Glenn Mulcaire, and the tabloid’s editor overseeing coverage of the royal family, Clive Goodman, went to jail after pleaded guilty to intercepting voice mail messages. Mr. Mulcaire has admitted targeting the cellphone of Milly Dowler, the teenager who was killed, in April 2002 when Ms. Brooks was editor and Mr. Coulson her deputy. Several former news editors have also admitted to being aware of the practice.

The jury members now need to decide whether they believe Ms. Brooks and Mr. Coulson, who say they were unaware of the phone hacking at the time. Ms. Brooks has maintained that she learned about the hacking of Ms. Dowler’s phone only when the story broke in The Guardian in 2011.

Whatever the verdict — and it could be followed by appeals — the case has already left its mark, said Roy Greenslade, a journalism professor at City University in London. News editors have been humbled, and politicians put on notice, he said.

“After years of Wild West activity the sheriff has ridden into town,” Professor Greenslade said. “If you look at the tabloid end of the British press, it’s cleaner than it’s ever been before.”

Correction:June 10, 2014

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the day that Justice John Saunders told the jury, “No one is so powerful they can ignore the law.” He said that last Wednesday, not Tuesday.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: After 7 Months, British Hacking Case Heads to the Jury. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe